Lake Wichita

Lake Wichita was a large man-made lake of 2,200-acre (890 ha) acres located some three miles southwest of Wichita Falls, Texas. Its creation was primarily the work of the business entrepreneur Joseph A. Kemp, who with his brother-in-law Frank Kell, is considered one of the principal founders of Wichita Falls in the early 20th century. In 1995, the dam and spillway were rebuilt lowering conservation elevation to 976', decreasing surface acreage to 1224 acres at full pool, and leaving average depth of four-feet.

Lake Wichita is partly in both Archer and Wichita counties. In the late 1890s, while serving as the county treasurer of Wichita County, Joseph Kemp tried to raise funds by means of a bond issue to build a dam and reservoir across the Wichita River. The restored falls of this river can be viewed just off U.S. Route 287 near the Texas Tourist Bureau station in Wichita Falls. At the time, the still governing Texas Constitution of 1876 forbade bond issues in regard to the establishment of irrigation systems. In 1900, Kemp created the private Lake Wichita Irrigation and Water Company. By chance, Kemp located a basin where water had collected during a heavy rain which caused Holliday Creek to overflow. Kemp hence determined that this particular site would be ideal for the lake that he envisioned. By 1901, Lake Wichita had been fully dredged at a cost of $175,000. The lake drains 143 square miles.

In 1909, Wichita Falls established a municipal electric trolley route to the lake, where a colonnade pavilion of three stories was built to promote recreation and tourism. In 1912, the lake was sold to a private business, but the city re-acquired the property by bond issue in 1920. Soon an amendment to the state constitution was ratified to allow bond issues in the acquisition of irrigation systems. In 1921, the previous dirt dam was superseded by a new concrete structure.

In 1918, the former Lakeside Hotel on Lake Wichita burned. Though the structure was not rebuilt, crowds for many years trekked to the lake, particularly on special days. Trains from Fort Worth and other nearby cities brought in visitors prior to the widespread availability of automobiles and highways. In the late 1920s, the chamber of commerce sponsored occasional carnivals at the lake. Over time, visitors lost interest in Lake Wichita as a resort, and the abandoned pavilion was finally razed in 1955. In 1966, Wichita Falls began to sell lake water to a nearby generating plant. While the City of Wichita Falls continues to hold municipal drinking water rights, the lake is no longer used as a source of municipal water supply for Wichita Falls.

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